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Sunday, April 26, 2009

We had travelled out of Coimbatore after a gap of several months owing to pre-occupation with establishing the e-Scooters dealership at Coimbatore. Shobha & I badly needed an outing & decided to take atrip to Palakkad. We first visited Manapally Kavu and offerred prayers to the Devi and Ayyappa. As always the Devi was magnificent and we worshipped as if in a trance.Next we travelled to Kalpathy Heritage Village. Kalpathy is one of the oldest Agraharams(Brahmin Settlements) in Palakkad. It was declared a Heritage Village by the Government of Kerala some years ago the purpose being to preserve the original culture, tradition & lifestyle. Kalpathy is located on the banks of the Kalpathy River, a tributary of the Bharathapuzha. We visited the Viswanatha swamy temple (Kundambalam) and the Mandakkara Maha Ganapathy temple. The Viswanathaswamy temple, whose origin dates back to 1425, is a Tamilnadu style temple & the deities are Kasi Viswanathar & Visalakshi. Other subshrines inside the temple are of Vinayakar, Subramaniar, Kala Bhairavar. There is also the Kanaka Sabhai where dancing idol of Natarajar can be seen. This temple reminds of the setting at Kasi hence sometimes referred to as half-Kasi.The famous annual Kalpathy Ratholsavam (Temple car festival) takes place in November of every year here. Kalpathy Ratholsavam is a spectacular procession of beautifully decorated temple chariots drawn through the streets by thousands of devoteesIt is believed that the Manthakara Mahaganapathy temple was established by the residents of the New Kalpathy village in recent times (less than a hundred years ago) to ward off 'Sivadhristi'.Other attractions in Kalpathy are the various music festivals and kutcheris conducted here on a regular basis. Of note are the Tyagaraja aradhana conducted every year at the Ramadhyana madhom.After spending around an hour at Kalpathy we drove to Chathapuram, a nearby village, where we had nice simple sumptuous home made meal at Lakshmi Mess run by a Brahmin family. The family was very friendly and served us with great hospitality. The menu comprised of rice, sambar, varaval, rasam, appalams, mango pickles & curds. All for a royal price of Rs.20/- We had a round of photographs with the family.And then it was time to bid adieu ! It was half a day well spent and the trip was fun and exteremely relaxing.For pictures please log onto: http://picasaweb.google.com/ramakrishnan49/KalpathyHeritageVillage?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ3G4s7JkuH0swE#